The present invention relates to a method for the reconstruction and recovery of the three-dimensional shape of an imaged object in a gauge measurement system, and more specifically, to a robust and accurate method for estimating the motion of an measured object mounted on a rotary stage.
Traditionally, in a gauge measurement system, such as a non-contact optical measurement system or coordinate measuring machine (CMM), an object to be measured is mounted on a rotary stage or platform. A rotary stage or platform is a mounting apparatus which is constrained to permit only movement about a single axis. Multiple views or contact measurements of the object are obtained by imaging or contacting the object at different poses. A calibration process is then utilized to provide a means to coherently merge the data taken at those views or measurements (recorded in local coordinate systems) into a single global coordinate system.
Conventional calibrations processes utilize plane intersections to coherently merge local coordinate systems into a global coordinate system. In such processes, a known planar object is mounted on the rotary stage or platform, a series of range images or sets of contact measurements of the object are obtained at different positions of the rotary stage. The data points from each rotary position are each fitted to an associated plane using a simple linear regression scheme. Intersecting pairs of the planes form vectors in space parallel to the axis of rotation. Combining these intersecting vectors yields the axis of rotation. So long as the rotary stage or platform is rigidly secured in relation to the sensor, and the calibration of the sensor does not subsequently change, the axis of rotation is fixed such that any object mounted to the rotary stage or platform is constrained to rotate about the same identified axis.
The precision and robustness of any rotational axis estimation scheme depends upon the amount of uncorrelated (useful) data input to the system. Accordingly, there is a need for a method to accurately estimate the axis of rotation for a rotary stage or platform from multiple views or measurements of an object which provides an increase in the amount of data input to the system.
Briefly stated, the present invention provides a method for determining the axis of rotation of an object mounted to a rotary stage or platform in a gauge measurement system by estimating a transformation between multiple views or measurements of the object obtained at different poses.